New here, but have been lurking for sometime and this looks great! I am presently beneath amateur, but wanting to learn. I just got a wonderful Holga, so reaquainting myself with film after many years. Am also ready to buy my first DSLR and am horribly confused where to start at this point!
Any advice is gladly taken and so very appreciated! Look forawrd to reading and eventually posting too!

Welcome to Pixalo. As you do not say if you are interested in any one area of photography, I assume you are after a camera for general photography. If this is the case, any of the mainstream brands will be more than adequate for your needs. The tricky bit is trying to anticipate where you might go as you become more proficient. Lens choice is a 'game within a game' in photography, so when you get a camera, you are buying into a system.

I suggest you spend a bit of time reading up on the varoius cameras, and visit a shop to actually get you hands on them. The different cameras have different control systems, so you need to get a camera that you feel comfortable using, and which is easy to select and adjust the apature, shutter speed and ISO rating as well as the other features.

Gradually you will be able to shorten your list until it will be obvious which one to buy.

Great advice Graham, thanks so much! I have pretty much decided the Canon XTi (400D) suits my need, so now I spend a lot of time holding the Canon in my hands, and then wondering if I like the shape of the Nikon better...I am driving a friend, a neighbor, and the girl at the camera store in my neighborhood all mad at this point. Might as well drive them to distraction over this as well as myself. So that is where I am. Do I go Canon XTi...or Nikon D40...or maybe even wait for a Nikon D80 ..when I have enough money...thanks, I should have been less vague before

Just keep holding them and try to imagine different situations where you might need to change settings - Apature - ISO - Shutter speed - Focus mode - Shooting mode - AF mode and metering mode. When you are in manual mode, how many buttons and thunbwheels do you need to use to adjust shutter and apature? Where is the LCD situated? What and how is the info displayed in the viewfinder?

You ought to be able to change the important settings without having to take the camera from your eye.

At first, they will all feel strange and you will have to keep asking how to do it, or grope around for the controls, or find that you need to have extra fingers to do things. One of them will start to feel more natural and easier to use. This is the one to go for.